Internal Affairs: Controller candidate named Yee may have name problem

By the Mercury News

Posted:
04/05/2014 04:00:00 PM PDT

Updated:
04/06/2014 10:26:25 AM PDT

San Francisco native Betty Yee is a tax and fiscal policy expert with almost three decades of experience as a public servant.

But this formidable candidate in June's state controller primary now has a thorny, unanticipated image problem on her hands.

Betty Yee shares the same last name as embattled state Sen. Leland Yee, who represents San Francisco and was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday for allegedly taking bribes and running guns.

Betty and Leland aren't related -- Yee is a common Chinese surname. But voters may unfairly associate one politician named Yee with another and scuttle her chances on Election Day.

Betty isn't worried, said Parke Skelton, a political consultant to Yee's campaign.

"This doesn't help us, but it's not a huge concern," Skelton said. "One Yee is a man and one is a woman. I think voters will realize they're different people."

Skelton said Betty Yee expects voters to consider her candidacy based on her background and experience.

Born to immigrant parents who ran a laundry and dry cleaning business, Betty Yee grew up speaking no English at home and translating for her parents and their customers.

She's held senior staff positions in both houses of the Legislature and helped craft state budgets through her work with the state Department of Finance. She currently serves as chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, the nation's only elected tax commission.

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"If she was a senator named Larry Yee, I'd be more concerned," Skelton said.

Even if Betty and Leland Yee didn't share the same last name, Betty Yee's campaign for controller would still be tough.

Assembly Speaker John Perez is running, too, and so far he has close to $1.8 million cash on hand. Betty Yee has a little more than $100,000 in the bank.

Golf tourney falls victim to political scandals

Chalk up one immediate victim of the ethical and legal scandals sullying the state Senate: Golf.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Kevin de Leon, who'll succeed Steinberg in the top spot at the end of this year, issued a joint statement last week announcing they've canceled the Pro Tem Cup.

That's the annual Democratic Party fundraiser at which donors give tens of thousands of dollars to join legislative leaders on the links at Torrey Pines in La Jolla.

The decision, they said, was "in light of the very recent and extraordinary breaches of the public trust by three individuals."

"In its place, we intend to spend this weekend in our districts having an open and public conversation with our constituents about the work ahead for this Legislature and for this state," Steinberg and de Leon said in their joint statement. "It's important that our constituents understand that, despite the appalling acts of a few individuals who -- on their own -- put self-interest ahead of the public interest, the senators who are here are here to serve, to do the hard, unglamorous work of fixing tough public-policy problems and -- most important -- to do it the right way."

And that means putting the putters away. Steinberg and de Leon said the modern campaign system makes fundraising "an occupational necessity, but Senate Democrats have always prided themselves on doing it ethically, appropriately and in full adherence to every rule and regulation governing public disclosure.

"The Pro Tem Cup has long been a successful, signature example of this," they said. "But these are unprecedented times and they demand that we take a step back and take stock of how we all do the people's business and balance it against the demands of running for office."

Officer named in lawsuit has history of using force

It turns out that a second cop in the current civil trial over San Jose police tactics has a notable history involving the use of force.

The trial arose from Air Force veteran Michael Fujikawa's claim that he was thrown to the ground during a 1:45 a.m. traffic stop downtown in 2011, zapped at least twice with a stun gun and jailed for five days on inflated charges as payback for initially refusing to put his hands on the dashboard and mouthing off to officer Steven Payne Jr.

Fujikawa sued the city, Payne and two other cops, Brian Jeffrey and Daniel Pfiefer, who arrived at Fourth and San Fernando streets after Payne called for backup. Fujikawa's case against Jeffrey and Pfeifer appears weak because they arrived midstream and were directed by Payne to take Fujikawa into custody.

All three officers deny violating Fujikawa's civil rights, saying they feared for their safety and handled the incident by the book.

Superior Court Judge Beth McGowen is expected to rule at the end of this month on whether the defendants are liable.

Payne's reputation is well-known. He was seen in a 2009 video shocking an unarmed San Jose State student with his Taser, although then-District Attorney Dolores Carr declined to charge him and other officers in that incident. And, in a 10-week span in 2008, he used force in four separate incidents as he took people into custody for resisting arrest.

It turns out that Jeffrey, who now works for Los Altos police, was one of two officers who fired a barrage of bullets that killed a mentally ill man named Daniel Pham in spring 2009 after Pham slashed his brother's throat.

Pham's death sparked outrage in the local Asian-American community and led to the formation of a civil rights coalition, including the Asian Law Alliance, the NAACP and a local organization, Silicon Valley De-bug. But a grand jury cleared Jeffrey and the other officer of any wrongdoing and a federal judge ruled they did not use excessive force.

San Jose panel deadlocks on e-cigarette restrictions

San Jose officials aren't yet ready to join the list of communities banning e-cigarettes in public places.

A City Council subcommittee last week deadlocked on a proposal from Councilwoman Rose Herrera to regulate vaping in the same way as traditional tobacco products, which are already prohibited in places such as restaurants and bars.

"We need to do whatever we can to take some action on this," Herrera said. "It really is a serious threat to the community."

Mayor Chuck Reed and Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen were open to looking further at it.

But Councilmen Pierluigi Oliverio and Pete Constant weren't having it.

"We can't regulate everything that's bad for people," Constant said.

Internal Affairs is an offbeat look at state and local politics. This week's items were written by Jessica Calefati, Josh Richman, Tracey Kaplan, Mike Rosenberg and Paul Rogers. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call 408-920-5782.